The #1 restaurant on this year’s Top 100 Places to Eat list is a true word-of-mouth success story. Holbox, a Mexican seafood spot in Los Angeles, opened quietly and without fanfare in 2017, only to bubble up on Yelp, rise to the top of the food world, and earn a Michelin star.
Chef Gilberto Cetina, who grew up fishing and diving in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, initially considered Holbox a side project—a creative outlet for his love of seafood. In between managing his family’s restaurant Chichén Itza, he began experimenting with the catch of the day: ceviche with Santa Barbara uni (sea urchin), tacos with local rockfish, and spiny lobster live from the tank.
Photos of Holbox’s Live Urchin & Scallop Ceviche, Baja Fish Taco with local rockfish, and Langosta al Carbon (local spiny lobster) by Liam Brown
When Holbox opened next door to Chichén Itza in the Mercado La Paloma food hall, Gilberto did little to market the business, counting on fans of mariscos (Mexican seafood) to spread the word. “We appealed to the outliers—to a small subset of diners out there—with a product that we were proud of and we thought was remarkable, and they thought it was too. The word of mouth really started from there, from that small group.”
Many of those early devotees were on Yelp. Just weeks after opening, 5-star reviews came pouring in from diners who were overjoyed to find a locally sourced mariscos spot in Los Angeles:
“If you are a seafood fan, you must try this gem and treat your senses to a bursting discovery of a seafood dimension never before explored,” Yelp user Ikamana B. wrote in an early review.
“Holbox is fresh seafood perfectly presented and honored,” Yelp user Tracy A. said. “You will fall in love with fresh clams. You will experience what ceviche should be (sushi brightly splashed in citrus, barely starting to cook).”
Photo of Ceviche de Atun (with wild caught bluefin tuna from San Clemente Island) by Liam Brown
Gilberto said sticking to a world-of-mouth strategy—and following his passions in the kitchen—helped catapult Holbox to the top of the Los Angeles dining scene. In just a few years, Holbox went from a small operation to a Michelin-starred restaurant with a team of 60.
Now a James Beard Award-nominated chef, Gilberto said that winning Yelp’s Top 100 feels like the culmination of those early years spent building a groundswell of support among diners who are equally passionate about seafood:
Gilberto Centina (photo by Liam Brown)
I’m extremely grateful and proud. Being named [the #1 restaurant] on Yelp, coming from the users—who are the people who are in here that we’re feeding, that we’re in contact with—is very significant. To me, it means that this project is not only important for us who are doing it, but it’s also resonating with an audience of consumers, and that’s huge.
—Chef Gilberto Centina
Below Gilberto shares insights from the early days of Holbox, as well as lessons he’s learning now, as he transitions the business from a mom-and-pop shop to a nationally recognized brand.
Find your niche and ‘appeal to the outliers’
Gilberto got into the restaurant industry temporarily—jumping in to help his parents run the family-owned, Yucatánean restaurant Chichén Itza—and ended up staying for two decades.
It was seafood that kept him in the kitchen, Gilberto said: “Growing up as a teenager in Mexico, I developed a great love for seafood just from being on the coast. When I moved back to the United States in 2001… I thought there was a gap in the market. I [saw] a need for mariscos, or Mexican seafood spots, that worked with local ingredients and really great, quality stuff straight from the ocean.”
For many aspiring business owners, putting yourself in the consumer’s shoes is a good way to test out your business idea—and Gilberto did just that. “I missed, as a consumer, being able to go to a beach town and get some pescado frito (fried fish) or ceviche with whatever the local fishermen were bringing in. I couldn’t find a lot of places that kind of had that approach,” he said.
Photos of Mercado la Paloma, where Holbox and Chichén Itza are located.
Left to right: photos from Yelp user Avida F., Liam Brown, and Yelp user Brian J.
“So when the opportunity came to take over the space that is now Holbox, I said: ‘You know what? Let’s give that a shot. Let’s try to do mariscos with this beautiful set of ingredients that we have here in Southern California.’”
Gilberto had no idea how successful his hunch would be. In fact, at the beginning, he worried diners would dismiss the concept as just “fancy mariscos,” since working with fresh, local seafood required a higher price tag than other seafood spots. But he refrained from editing the menu or making the restaurant’s appeal more mainstream, believing that the right consumers would find it and love it.
“I understood from the beginning that it was not going to be targeted toward the masses,” he said. “We put a product out that I felt was going to resonate with a small subset of diners. I felt that if we offered something for those few, then we would find a niche in the market and that would be what we would build on. And that’s exactly what happened.”
Photos of Camarones al Mojo de Ajoy (roasted local shrimp), Almeja Preparada (giant surf clam), and Pulpo Asado (grilled octopus) by Liam Brown
We appealed to the outliers—to a small subset of diners out there—with a product that we were proud of and we thought was remarkable, and they thought it was too.
—Chef Gilberto Centina
What resonates most is ‘food that tells a story’
Appealing to your target market, or what Gilberto calls the “outliers,” is a solid strategy for small business success. But you also need a way for that audience to find you—a place where they can learn about who you are and what you do best.
For Holbox, that place was Yelp. The chef claimed the business on Yelp in February 2017, and reviews popped up that very same month. “During our early years, a large percentage of our business was people finding us on Yelp,” he said.
Photo from Yelp user Jeong A.C.
The Michelin-starred Holbox can no longer be called a hidden gem, but at the start, that’s how it felt to reviewers—as if they’d uncovered a pearl in their oyster. “I’m a fan of mariscos, and this place just takes it to the next level,” Yelp user Stephanie N. wrote. “Holbox is a true gem and a forward-thinking pioneer in the mariscos landscape of Southern California,” Kevin K. said.
Once Gilberto filled out his Yelp Page, he found that letting customers discover the business for themselves generated even more excitement around the concept. “I think Yelp is unique in the sense that once… you get a few good reviews in, that really spikes the curiosity of the Yelp public. They want to come in and they want to try the product, and they also want to put their opinion down [in a review],” he said.
To keep the momentum going, Gilberto recommends telling a story with your business—whether it’s woven into your menu or highlighted on your Yelp Page. At Holbox, he leaned into things that set the restaurant apart: hyper-local ingredients sourced from the Pacific Coast; sustainable cooking practices that incorporate parts of the fish that are typically discarded; the chef’s background as an immigrant and upbringing in Mérida, Mexico, which inspired Holbox (named for an island off the Yucatán Peninsula).
Photos of Chef Gilberto from Yelp user Stephanie V. and Pata de Mula (blood clams from Baja, California) by Liam Brown
“Having good food, having good ingredients—that’s the basics. That’s what you need just to stay in business,” Gilberto said. “Our guests want food that represents the people who are making it.”
What really resonates with diners right now is food that’s telling a story, either about where the chef is from and what they are trying to do, or a story of ingredients, farmers, or why a specific ingredient is being sourced.
—Chef Gilberto Centina
Delegating can be scary, but it’s necessary for growth
Although Gilberto did plenty of front-of-house work at Chichén Itza, he had a steep learning curve when he opened Holbox. It was his first solo venture, and like so many first-time founders, he was nervous about getting it right. “Doing this was a big deal for me,” he said. “I’m not the most adventurous or bravest of entrepreneurs. I like to take little baby steps and make sure that everything’s in place.”
Without help from loans or investors, Holbox grew slowly through the process of building an organic customer base. The pace allowed Gilberto to tweak his business model over time, honing the balance between the restaurant’s gourmet fare and fast-casual format. (Diners can order a la carte at the seafood counter or make a reservation for an 8-course tasting menu.)
Holbox became financially viable within three years, and after making it through the pandemic, it was finally primed for expansion. Rather than expand the space, Gilberto focused on growing his team—first from four to 20 employees, and more recently to 60. “The challenge toward the beginning of our journey was, ‘How do we build this team?’” he said. “The challenge now has shifted into, ‘How do we manage this team?”
Photo of Holbox’s seafood counter in Mercado la Paloma by Liam Brown
Gilberto recalls the moment he realized he needed to put more structures in place to keep his team happy: “For me, it [was] really critical… when I realized: ‘Hey, this is not mom and dad and the relatives and friends. We have a team here. I need to bring an administrative team on board that has more experience in management than I do.’”
A larger team means more scheduling, more employee training, and more administrative work. But letting go of operations isn’t always easy—especially coming from a family business background, where Gilberto and his parents handled every aspect of the business. “Accepting that I don’t know what I don’t know and I need to bring people on board to help me—just that realization and delegating such important, crucial tasks as payroll and HR—for me, was difficult,” he said.
Delegation is scary for me. I’m not great at it, but I’m getting better, and I think that’s helping a lot right now to enable us to continue to grow.
—Chef Gilberto Centina
Keeping the goal of growth in sight helped Gilberto overcome his biggest fear as a business owner—and as a bonus, he’s now able to spend more time in the kitchen and less behind a desk. “That is my happy place. That is where I want to be. If I can bring in people who are a lot better at all the other stuff that I am, then I’ll be in a good place,” he said.
Engage with your community on Yelp and in the streets
It’s not just those first few years on Yelp that made a difference for Holbox. Gilberto said reviewers’ honesty and transparency keeps the business accountable and helps him identify places for improvement, even today. “A lot of times when you’re face-to-face with the customer, they won’t tell you if there was anything wrong with their experience… but Yelpers in their reviews, they’re very sincere,” he said.
Photo from Yelp user Jessica M.
Recently, reviewers tipped Holbox off about a problem with the hot food station: Gusty winds in the food hall were cooling down the hand-pressed tortillas, leaving diners with cold tacos, so the team installed plate warmers to ensure a better experience.
“Yelp is a really good tool for us to get honest feedback about what we’re doing, but also what we’re not doing,” Gilberto said. “We’ve pivoted on several occasions based on trends that we saw in Yelp reviews. If we get several negative comments about a dish, we won’t automatically change it, but we take a look and see if we can improve on it.”
All of this makes Holbox’s Top 100 win even more meaningful to Gilberto—because it’s coming from a community that’s invested in his success. “All accolades and awards are… great for business, but this is the first major award that we’ve gotten that comes from the diners. So I’m very, very grateful to those diners and to Yelp for giving them a platform to talk about restaurants and talk about us,” he said.
Unfortunately, the honor also comes at a tragic time for that same community. Weeks of wildfires in Los Angeles destroyed thousands of homes and displaced more than 100,000 people over the month of January. The fires decimated many small businesses, as well as the homes and livelihoods of the people behind them.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles restaurant community has banded together to provide meals for fire victims and first responders. Chef Gilberto donated $10,000 in restaurant proceeds to World Central Kitchen, which provides meals to people affected by the fires.
Our businesses are beautiful. We love what we do. The reality is that the restaurant industry is very fragile, and it doesn’t take a lot to derail the efforts that you’re making. I just want to thank everybody in the restaurant industry, especially those [who helped fight] the fires or were affected by the fires, for doing what you do, despite all of the difficulties.
—Chef Gilberto Centina
